Above our price range

The price of Pyongyang's signature Naengmyeon, a savory buckwheat noodle dish served cold, jumped more than twentyfold after state restaurants lifted controls in the face of severe food shortages in North Korea. The sharp price hike turned a popular light summer meal into a luxury beyond the means of ordinary residents of a country that is slipping into food insecurity brought on by the early 2020 shutdown of all border trade with China to fight the coronavirus pandemic.